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Monday, May 3, 2010

If the Devils were considering buying out the the final year on left wing Jay Pandolfo's contract, they probably can forget about it now.

The 35-year-old left wing will have surgery Tuesday to repair a labrum tear that he sustained when he dislocated his right shoulder on a hit from ex-Devil Mike Rupp on Oct. 24 in Pittsburgh. Pandolfo said the expected recovery time is four months until he would be ready to participate in full contact drills, but that doctors would know more about the recovery time after the surgery.

If it does take four months, Pandolfo would be ready for the start of training camp in September, but the Devils will miss both windows to buy out his contract. According to the NHL's collective bargaining agreement, an injured player's contract cannot be bought out.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirmed to me via e-mail that there are, "only two windows for permissible buyouts and if the player is not fit to play during either of those periods (due to a hockey-related injury), he is not eligible to be bought out."

The first buyout period begins at 5 p.m. on June 15 or 48 hours after the final game of the Stanley Cup Finals (whichever date is later) and ends at 5 p.m. on June 30. Teams with players that file for arbitration have a second window to buy out players within 48 hours of the team's last arbitration award or settlement. The last day that arbitration awards can be announced is Aug. 6. So, if Pandolfo is not deemed healthy by Aug. 8 -- at the latest -- he will not be eligible to be bought out. Given the expected four-month recovery period, Pandolfo will not be healthy by then.

Pandolfo has one-year at $2.5 million left on his contract. He also has a no-trade clause. He said he had not yet been asked to waive the no-trade clause. It would seem unlikely that a team would trade for him anyway while he is recovering from surgery.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.